The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:
The Times says the government got a lashing from Franco Debono when he spoke during the no-confidence debate in parliament yesterday.
The Malta Independent also focuses on Franco Debono’s speech in parliament, while its front page picture is from the world economic forum in Davos. It also says that abortion is on the rise where it is illegal.
In-Nazzjon says Franco Debono did not declare how he will vote when he spoke in Parliament yesterday. It also highlights the launch of the MyHealth internet service by the health minister yesterday.
l-orizzont has a similar heading to that of In-Nazzjon about Franco Debono. It also says that patients are losing their dignity because of overcrowding at the hospital.
The overseas press
The New York Times quotes the UN envoy to Libya telling the Security Council that Libyan militias were out of control and illegally holding more than 8,000 pro-Gaddafi supporters in secret detention centres, amid reports of torture. Ian Martin said recent clashes in Tripoli, Bani Walid and Benghazi had highlighted the Libyan government’s inability to bring the militias under control. Meanwhile, UN human rights chief Navi Pillay urged the authorities to take control of these informal jails, review the cases, and deal with the prisoners in a legal framework. Al Jazeera says Libyan Defence Minister Osama al-Juwali, who had been negotiating with militiamen in Bani Walid, told reporters on Wednesday that the situation was stable.
Deutsche Welle reports German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that Europe needed structural reforms to tackle the economic crisis. In her opening speech to the annual meeting of decision makers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Merkel urged Europe to become "more European" and work to resolve its festering problems. She said Berlin was resolute to do what was necessary to save European unity but she rejected calls for Germany and other countries to simply boost the eurozone’s rescue fund for debt-crippled nations.
Sky News reports that the British government has suffered a massive defeat in the House of Lords on its welfare reforms after peers voted by 270 to 128 to prevent plans to charge single parents for using the Child Support Agency. The defeat is the sixth ministers have suffered on the Welfare Reform Bill, which is on its final day of report stage in the Lords.
Polskie Radio announces that more than 10,000 demonstrators have taken to the streets of Warsaw to protest against their government’s decision to sign an international treaty that they say would lead to censorship of the internet. Hackers who oppose the treaty had brought down polish government websites in recent days.
Armed men are reported to have attacked the defence headquarters in Papua New Guinea and placed the army commander under house arrest. ABC says the mutiny appears to be linked to the conflict between Peter O'Neill and Sir Michael Somare – the two men claiming the role of prime minister. They have been wrangling over the role for six months.
The Nation says the number of people suspected to have died in Lahore from taking bad heart medicine in eastern Pakistan has risen to 69. A total of 419 heart patients had become sick from taking the drugs, and 45 of them remained in critical condition. The suspected drugs were given free to patients by the state-run Punjab Institute of Cardiology.
O Globo reports that two buildings – one of them 20 storeys high – have collapsed in Rio de Janiero. Witnesses say they heard a loud explosion before the collapse. Four people had been recovered alive but hundreds of others remained trapped.
Clarin says that President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of Argentina has rejected British accusations that her government had a colonialist attitude to the Falkland Islands. Making her first public appearance after undergoing surgery for cancer, she condemned the UK prime minister's claim and branded David Cameron's comment "nonsense". Falkland islanders, she said, would not be forced to give up their British nationality if Argentina gained control.
Times of Central Asia says prison authorities in Kyrgyzstan say more than 1,000 inmates have sewn their mouths closed with staples and thread in protest against jail conditions. Many convicts are in serious condition and some were hospitalised due to not taking food as some 7,000 went on a hunger strike. The standoff between prison authorities and convicts after one crime boss murdered another. Prison staff raided the cells, confiscating mobile phones, drugs and money. Kyrgyzstan, which has a prison population of 15,000.